"Anyone who has heard of ATI video cards has probably heard of Sapphire Technology. Sapphire is the largest producer of AMD/ATI graphics
products in the world, and do far more than rebrand a product with their own label. The Radeon HD 4000 series launched with tremendous success not
long ago, and Sapphire has tweaked the design to produce their own high-performance Toxic Edition of the popular Radeon HD 4870 video card. In this
article, Benchmark Reviews tests their graphics card against the competition to find out if a factory-overclocked model is worth the money."

"While SilverStone Technology has long been known for their
high-end (and very expensive) computer cases such as the Sugo and Temjin
series, as of late they've begun manufacturing other computer
peripherals while driving new and interesting innovations into these
conventional products. Earlier this month we looked at the SilverStone
Treasure TS01, which was a 2.5" SATA drive enclosure, but
separating it from the other enclosure devices on the market, this one
would encrypt the drive and secure it using two RFID keys. If these
small keys were not exposed to the TS01, the drive enclosure would not
work. Another interesting creation from SilverStone Technology is the
Raven RVM01B. This here is SilverStone's first computer mouse and we are
looking at it today."

"Lian-Li is known for their unique high-quality cases. They are now offering a chassis for the Xbox 360. The black case should finally make your console look good next to that fancy TV of yours. We pack the XB-01 with the consoles guts to see how it fares."

"Once in a while a product comes along and you look at it and wonder where it's been all your life. The features you always wondered why they didn't incorporate before are all there in one spot. It doesn't happen very often that products are so feature laden that you're taken aback."

"Overall the AudioFX Pro 5.1 has really impressed me in the
design and styling aspects, right the way through to the Heckendorn
Original custom touches throughout the unit. You can really tell that
this headset is made for the Gamer in you, with aspects that you won’t
find in any other headset. The only issue I had really was the stuck
on logo on the top, but I should not let that spoil my judgment
should I?"

"The Antec Mini P180 is a mini tower case that builds on the designs of the original P180 and P182, and puts those lessons to work in a
smaller format. The smaller format comes at a price; only microATX motherboards are supported, but is that much of a penalty in the intended market
segment? Benchmark Reviews is going to look at a computer case new offering from Antec that is aimed at a narrower market niche than most of their
other products."

"It's been a while since last looking at any Corsair memory at
Phoronix, but up for review this afternoon is their latest
TWIN2X4096-6400C4DHX memory. This DDR2 memory features Corsair's DHX
technology for cooling the memory ICs with EPP latencies of 4-4-4-12 and
run at 800MHz. Like many other Corsair products, the
TWIN2X4096-6400C4DHX is also backed by a lifetime warranty."

"Ultimate Ears just released a completely new earphone dubbed the Super.fi 5. It is aimed at budget conscious earphone users looking for a good sounding, decent looking set of in-ears. The new radical design is a major leap forward compared to the old Ultimate Ears design."

"HIS' latest HD 4670 card comes equipped with the VGA Silencer made by Arctic Cooling. It also features an extra 30 MHz core clock. Even though it is factory overclocked we saw another 10% overclocking potential on both core and memory."

"The freezer 7 Pro from Arctic Cooling has what it takes. Up against a couple of high-performance coolers that were newer, bigger and much more expensive, the little Freezer 7 Pro held its own. Some consumers might overlook the Freezer as being dated and no longer competitive. That would be a big mistake."

"The initial release of the GTX-2XX series of GPU's is still fresh in our memories and variants are already hitting the market. Usually we see a full blown variant and a less expensive little brother. Seldom do we see the full blown version, the little brother, then a ramped up version of the little brother. Recently NVIDIA released the GTX-260 MaxCore, a revamped version of the GTX-260 that has 216 processing cores instead of the 196 run-of-the-mill cores that the GTX-260 contains. This places the GTX-260 MaxCore smack in the middle of the GTX-260 and GTX-280 where processing cores are concerned. When we found out BFG was offering the GTX-260 OCX MaxCore in their GTX-2XX lineup, we knew we had to drive one of these beasts to see how much more performance we could get than with a normal GTX-260. Well, we've driven it like it was stolen and we have to tell you it's one heck of a ride!"

"The Ninja HS is Vizo's newest addition the their high quality notebook cooler line-up. The unit is made of heavy duty materials, encased in a nearly indestructible paint job and featuring a USB 2.0 hub. The cooling area can also be aligned to cool your notebook where it is needed most."

"The EVGA e-GeForce 9600 GSO Dual-Slot Edition graphics card is the card that can be had for $49.99 with free shipping, a free 2GB USB Flash drive and the retailer is Newegg! For that price you don't get a fancy factory overclocked card, but it does come with the standard clocks - 550MHz core clock, 1600MHz memory clock (effective) and 1375MHz shaders. What makes this card so interesting from a folding perspective is that it has 96 stream processors (more than a 9600 GT), is very cheap, uses little power, produces little noise (thanks to the dual-slot cooler), and can overclock like a bat out of hell..."

"With the Atom-based ASUS Eee PC 901 we have already delivered
disk encryption benchmarks and a Linux distribution comparison of
Xandros, Fedora, Ubuntu, and Mandriva. This Intel 1.6GHz Diamondville
processor isn't the fastest, but it's performing quite well for a
netbook. With netbooks and their users often on the go though, for those
not using the suspend and resume mode the boot time can be equally
important as the in-desktop performance. To look at this we are
delivering boot performance benchmarks for the Eee PC 901 from Fedora 9,
Fedora 10, Ubuntu 8.10, and Mandriva 2009."

"What is important when shopping for hard drives is the storage space, rotational speed, amount of cache, and of course the price. Currently, for desktop computers, 7,200 RPM SATA II hard drives are the most common type of storage. For enterprise and business, there is SAS, which stands for Serial Attached SCSI."

"OCZ's PC2-9200 Flex II modules can be used with both air and watercooling. They are designed for 1150 MHz DDR2 at CL 5 with 2.1V. In our testing we could easily push the modules above DDR2-1200 without an extra voltage increase."

"The extremities of the case are then protected with the top
handle ‘rails’ being wrapped in foam, and the bottom ‘rails’ and front
panel shiny plastic covered in yet more protective plastic. I can’t
quite place my finger on it, but there is something very sleek and
sexy about the Cosmos S, I adore the styling and it’s a case I could
easily fall in love with."

"Even excellent products usually have some minor issue that I come across during a review, but it was difficult to find anything negative at all to say about the TS-509. Everything about the setup was easy, from installing drives to configuring RAID to setting up the many additional features it offers. Once it was up and running, finding what I wanted was also easy due to the neatly organized interface."

"The inexorable march away from tapes and
discs has picked up steam in Camcorder
Land-and this trend will continue until
MiniDV and DVD home video makers take their
place on the obsolete shelf next to Walkman
cassette music players and analog
televisions. This won't happen overnight, but
it's happening right in front of our eyes as
flash-based and hard disk drive camcorders
win-over the public and take share from
competing formats. Basically, it's the iPod
Phenomenon dramatically reshaping the
camcorder biz. According to industry execs,
tape and DVD cam sales are dropping while the
new-and definitely cooler-formats take over.
Almost all of the recent releases were memory
card, flash or HDD based. And many of them
are high-definition. I'm a big fan of
high-def hard drive camcorders because their
storage capabilities can't be beat. It's
great not worrying if you have enough blank
tape or DVDs for saving memories. And the
small size and weight of flash-based models
is also a winner. Finally, a high-definition
camcorder is the only way to go, even though
they're much more expensive than SD ($799 USD
is still about the cheapest, compared to $250
USD for MiniDV). With these preferences on
the table, I was happy to test a new JVC HD
Everio with a 120GB HDD. This high-def
camcorder saves up to 15 hours of
best-quality AVCHD video plus it performs
several other unique tricks we'll disclose on
the following pages. Is it worth 1,300 clams?
Read on, read on."

"The BFG Tech line of power supplies consists of several models that offer a variety of interesting features and power ratings from 550W to 1000W. In this review we will be taking a look at the LS-680, a 680 Watt unit that features desirable items such as quad 12V rails, four PCI Express graphics card connections, and a typical efficiency of 85%."

"Here is the scoop. I am going to sell off some of Bigbruin.com's review items at low prices, and half of the money is going to go to a charity working on a cure for the disease that hit me last year (Severe Aplastic Anemia). The terms are that I am going to give 50% off all sales to the charity. I will keep adding things to this thread and will cut a check when the sale seems to be over. Shipping is calculated separately and not included in the 50/50 split. People can pay via money order, check, or Paypal, and I will eat the Paypal fees. And if helping a charity and getting a good deal weren't enough, one person who buys something from the yard sale will be randomly selected to receive a $25 Best Buy gift card."

"Storage needs have changed over the years and it seems like we've seen a never ending parade of drive enclosures and docking stations. But the problem lies within the limited choices in regards to interface and capacity. USB is limited in transfer speeds but offers portability in exchange. Firewire offers speed, but not all computers are set up to handle it. E-Sata leaves you with a drive enclosure cluttering up your desk and wires trailing behind it."

"Arctic Cooling's well deserved reputation for high performance, low cost VGA cooling remains intact with the release of the Accelero S1 (Rev.2.) With great cooling performance and wide online availability at a pricepoint of $26.00 US or less, the S1 is a superb value. Outstanding support and a six (that's right, I said SIX) year warranty only make the S1 an even sweeter deal."

"Pointing devices are very important to us all during every day use of a PC. Advances in technology have made them extremely accurate,
quick to respond and great for gaming. The optical mouse was a great innovation and a change for the better. The advent of the laser engine gave us
much more accuracy, faster response times and no more cleaning. The laser mouse has become a "must have" for any serious gamer in these current times.
Benchmark Reviews has been afforded an opportunity to examine one of these devices, the Wolf King Trooper MVP Laser Gaming Mouse."

"It's been a hell of a time getting X.Org 7.4 out the door, but
this afternoon Adam Jackson has released this long-delayed update to
this X system. X.Org 7.4 is arriving after the release of X Server 1.5.1
earlier in the day. Yes, it's finally here! In this article we have
information on the features that make up this release along with what
it's taken to get X.Org 7.4 primed for release."

"If Art Lebedev's Optimus Maximus keyboard
has your wallet crying uncle and Saitek's
Cyborg is a little loud for your tastes,
Logitech's new, ultra-slim Illuminated
Keyboard might be just the ticket to bring
some flavor to your desk. We found it to
tasteful, comfortable to type on, and well
built, making it one of the best style-minded
keyboards to float through our offices."

"Asides from the simple act of operating as a motherboard, the ASUS Rampage Extreme looks like a work of art and could almost be a coffee table centerpiece. Factor in the incredible possibilitles available with TweakIt, the discrete audio X-Fi solution, and the massive overclocking potential, it's hard to not want the board. Once again though price becomes an issue, for $400 you can purchase a board and processor. If you are in the market for the best of the best though, the Rampage Extreme is it..."

"Earlier this month the ATI Radeon HD 4600 series from AMD was
unveiled as the new mid-range graphics cards derived from their flagship
RV770 graphics core. The Radeon HD 4650 and Radeon HD 4670 are the two
RV730-based products now available. The ATI Radeon HD 4670 may not be
able to compete with the Radeon HD 4800 series in all of the tests, but
at a price of under $100 USD is it worth pursuing? For this article we
have our hands on the brand new Sapphire Radeon HD 4670 512MB graphics
card as we test it on Ubuntu Linux to see how well it can perform in our
OpenGL tests and overclock with the recently added OverDrive support."

"Before the review started I didn't know what to expect from for the Rosewill RX630-S-B Xtreme Series 630W power supply. The published features and specifications were strong, and from what I had read elsewhere on the web the general opinion seemed positive. I just wasn't sure that a Rosewill power supply priced under $90 was really going to impress, and I worried that too much of that small budget had been spent on the aesthetics."

"The Aerocool Hi-Tech 7 Pro features a huge 400 mm fan which is the biggest ever seen on a computer case so far. Also included is a fan controller and thermal monitor up front. We fire the turbine up to see how that monster fan performs."

"At first I thought there is no way that LED technology can make up for the cost difference when compared to a standard panel lit LCD TV. Boy did the LN-T4681F take those thoughts, write them down on a sheet and paper and shred them to confetti right before my eyes."

"Apple's latest iPod nano continues to loom
over the heads of its competitors despite
players with better sound and more features
from companies like Sony and Microsoft. The
redesigned body almost seems like a brush of
nostalgia, though it definitely improves on
the previous generation and keeps the device
current. We're more impressed with the new
firmware, which provides the best level of
polish yet on Apple's non-touchscreen
devices, and the on-board accelerometer adds
some pizzaz to a player some consider to be
getting stale."

"Today we take a look at another vital part of every computer, the case. It's what holds it all together. In days gone by, a case has been a matter of function over form. As time goes by however, more and more people get involved in modifying or 'modding' their computer cases; some for looks, some for performance gains. Manufacturers have certainly taken notice and it seems that every day we see another new case enter the market. LED's, side windows, and front panel cutouts have all seen increases in popularity. One of the primary concerns of modern computer enthusiasts is, and will likely remain, heat and the ways to deal with it efficiently."

"When everyone thought AMD was sinking into a dark abyss, ATI unvieled their Radeon HD 4000 series and proved the critics all wrong. The
Radeon HD 4870 is their current single-GPU flagship, and it's earned a high level of well-deserved distinction. Palit has followed-up this pattern by
adding some stand-out features of their own. Benchmark Reviews tests the Palit Radeon HD 4870 Sonic edition video card from Palit. This RV770
graphics solution offers factory overclocked perfomance and a new cooling solution."

"Last month we looked at the EP45-DS3L and EP45T-DS3R
motherboards from Gigabyte. These two Intel P45 motherboards had turned
out to be great contenders as long as you are using a newer Linux
distribution that ships with a very recent Linux kernel. Today though on
the review block we have two new motherboards compliments of ASRock. The
ASRock P43R1600Twins-WiFi and P45R2000-WiFi utilize the Intel P43 and
P45 Chipsets, respectively, but the duo share the Intel ICH10R
Southbridge and both feature an integrated 802.11g WiFi module along
with system memory support for both DDR2 and DDR3 standards. There are
also a few other extras with the ASRock P45R2000-WiFi such as ATI
CrossFire support, dual Gigabit LAN, and two eSATA connectors. What's
important though is whether these relatively low-cost motherboards work
under Linux, and we will tell you that today."

"Lexar's new FireWire 800 CF Card Reader uses the powerful interface to offer unprecedented bandwidth with allows you to optimally use the latest CF card technology. While the traditional USB interface is limited to a maximum of about 30 MB/s, the FireWire interface goes up to 100 MB/s. Clearly a difference if you move a lot of files to and from your CF card."

"Having previously reviewed the K1 case from GMC I was excited
to get hold of their next model; the K2. In my opinion they have made
the case even more attractive and the buttons on the front of the case
easier to use. On the K1 I didn’t like how the bottom USB (etc) cover
wasn’t spring loaded to lock shut, but on the K2 GMC have sorted that
out with a much better cover system."

"Today we looking at a PS3 accessory from Thrustmaster called the T-X3 Charge Hub. The hub charges two PS3 controllers and adds needed USB ports to the PS3.
We play lots of PS3 around my house, specifically we really like Rock Band.
The problem when you have all four ports on the PS3 packed with drums, guitars and a mic is that when a normal PS3 controller goes dead, you can't even connect it to the system to use while it recharges. Thrustmaster has a product that fixes this issue called the T-X3 Charge Hub. Read on for all the details of the T-X3 Charge Hub."

"Introduced in Ubuntu 7.10 was a feature known as BulletProofX,
which provides a fail-safe mode that is by default used when the X
server fails to properly initialize. In this original implementation, it
would default back to using the VESA display driver with 256 colors and
then proceed to run the displayconfig-gtk utility. While this is nice
for the end-user as it keeps them from touching a terminal to debug an X
server problem, for experienced users it inhibits them from easily
debugging the problem. This Canonical implementation also had frustrated
other users. However, with the forthcoming Ubuntu 8.10 release, it has
received some much-needed improvements while making BulletProofX more
simple."

"The GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 does, without a doubt, improve performance over the original GeForce GTX 260 thanks to the additional 24 shaders that have been added to the graphics card. By increasing the number of shaders from 192 to 216 (a 12.5% increase) performance improvements were seen, but no where near the 12.5% that one might expect and this is on an overclocked version of the card!"

"Have you ever found yourself in need of a decent mid-range power supply unit for your personal computer? Maybe you don't feel like you need 1200 watts of thumping power to drive the family PC? Most people really don't need one of the PSU's that's a 1000 watts or more that we see popping up all over the market. The average home computer doesn't consume nearly that much power. Heck, most enthusiast systems don't consume that much power."

"Razer's newest mouse is an entry level gaming device, stuffed with their awesome sensor technology at a great price point of $39. This makes it an interesting choice if you want go for a Razer mouse for the first time without spending a lot of money."

"Cooling a notebook computer can be a pain, especially if you use a large gaming machine that produces lots of heat. NZXT has a notebook stand called the Cryo LX that is up to the task.
Many notebooks run much hotter than notebook users would prefer. It can also literally be a pain in the neck to work on a notebook for extended periods thanks to having to look down at the screen. NZXT has a product called the Cryo LX that can pull double duty by cooling the notebook and raising the screen to more comfortable levels."

"Before teenagers were snapping up iPhones
and BlackBerrys left and right, T-Mobile's
original Sidekick was the phone to own for
fashion-savvy textaholics. The latest
T-Mobile Sidekick bulks up on features
without bulking up on size, making it a
definite upgrade and a solid value as far as
we're concerned - even with the more crowded
market for smartphones."

"We have learned that Nvidia will shed 6.5 percent of its 5,500-strong
global workforce---equating to approximately 360 employees---before the
end of its third fiscal quarter.
The job cuts come following dramatic changes to the company's business
outlook during the second quarter and will be company-wide cuts. There
will be job losses in all business units, in all regions -- because of
this, there will be some internal reshuffling following the cuts.
Although Nvidia's business outlook has changed, the company says it is
still making significant progress in its key growth areas, namely with
its CUDA parallel computing technology and also its Tegra system on a
chip, and will continue to invest heavily in high growth opportunities."

"Last month with the Catalyst 8.8 Linux driver we finally
experienced CrossFire support on Linux as well as OverDrive support.
This was one of the most significant driver releases of the year, but
it's now time to move on as Catalyst 8.9 has just been released. This
new driver update does bring a few exciting changes: the long-awaited
WINE fixes, what appears to be RandR 1.2 with accelerated rotation
support, and a horde of bug-fixes."

"Lexar is joining the frey of high-performance UDMA Compact Flash cards with their Professional 300x series of cards. We get to take a look at their 8 GB version with a big, pleasant suprise during benching."

"Given its size, I was very impressed by the call clarity on both ends (I even called my landline to listen for myself). Is it as good as $100 headsets? Not really, but it's a definite overachiever in the bargain entry, and one you should have a good hard look at if you are in the market for a new ‘set."

"Today we are looking at one of the coolest Nintendo Wii accessories ever, called the Thrustmaster Glow Saber Duo Pack NW. The devices are a pair of small light sabers that look like something right out of a Lucas movie.
It's not often in the world of video game controllers that you see something that makes you go"

"Sapphire has engineered their own version of the Radeon HD 4850 with cost and cooling in mind. The card's new unconventional heatsink looks good and keeps the card cool - far below reference design temperatures. The best of all is that the card costs only $169.99 online which makes it the cheapest HD 4850 available today."

"Corsair has done a great job on the Flash Voyager Mini and for such a small device the performance was actually better than I expected. The Corsair Flash Voyager Mini was not designed to be a speed demon, but the benchmarks showed that it wasn't all that slow. The write performance on the drives could use some work as writing 8GB of data at just over 2MB/sec does take a fair amount of time, but once you get the data written to the drive the read throughput on both the 4GB and 8GB Voyager Mini drives was great!"

"comes in so many different flavors it's hard to make a choice. Unfortunately, many of those choices don't include Active Cooling for the hard drive. Many of the external HDD enclosures provide the functionality you need, but are utilitarian in design and tend to 'ugly up' your desk. Not only do they raise the 'ugly' factor of your desktop, they seldom have Active Cooling for the hard working drive inside, and Active Smart Cooling is pretty much non-existent."

"Today the XFX GTX 280 XXX video card is up for review. This is the factory-overclocked version of the GTX 280 we looked at a few months back. The card shares the same features in common with the factory clocked GTX 280.
Support for NVIDIA PhysX, CUDA, and HDCP are standard. Of all the versions of the GTX 280 offered by XFX, the XXX has the highest clock speeds."

"When tech and fashion collide, it's not
always pretty. In fact, sometimes, it's
downright ugly - and forget about actually
trying to use it. From crystal-studded USB
theft magnets, to phones that look like
mutated children's toys, we rounded up our
top 20 techno train wrecks from companies
that failed to make fashion function. This
week, we scratch the surface with retro gone
wrong, good ideas that turned out badly, and
a certain iconic cell phone that never quite
cut it."

"Today NVIDIA released their updated GeForce GTX 260 GPUs which come with 24 extra shaders, for a total shader count of 216. Zotac has also overclocked their card beyond the GTX 280 clock speeds which results in a card that is just 1% slower than the regular GTX 280, yet costs over $130 less."

"The wattage rating label for the PSU, as you can see on the
specifications page, up to 1000W of the 1100W that this PSU can supply
can be drawn from the 12v rails. That is a seriously beefy amount of
12v power. The UL number indicates that this PSU has been made by
Cooler Master, which means it hasn’t been outsourced to another
company and just had Cooler Master stickers thrown on it."

"AVA Direct builds custom gaming systems to
order, and our review sample turned out to be
the computer equivalent of a 22-ounce filet
mignon paired with a $500 bottle of merlot.
Not surprisingly, the $6,200 amalgamation of
high-end hardware blew nearly every game we
could throw at it out of the water, with
build quality and attention to detail from
this manufacturer to match. This specific
system build doubles as both a workstation
and a gaming PC which explains why Xeon
processors were used."

"Today we are looking at one of the slickest PC cases to hit the market in a long time. The case is from Lian Li and is called the PC-X500. As you expect when you hear the Lian Li name, the case is of top quality.
The Lian Li PC-X500 is a fantastic case, which cost more than some low-end complete PCs or notebooks at over $350. For some people that amount of money will seem like serious overkill. For the gamer looking for the ultimate PC chassis for their high-end gaming system, the Lian Li PC-X500 may be just the ticket."

"Late last month we published our preview of the ASUS Eee PC
901 and we shared our plans for a number of benchmarks using this
netbook with Intel's Atom processor. Following our Linux desktop
encryption benchmarks of the ASUS Eee PC 901 and Intel Atom N270 CPU we
have a performance comparison of Xandros, Fedora, Ubuntu, and Mandriva
on this low-cost netbook PC."

"The Radeon HD4850 chipset was launched to fill a role in the middle of the graphics card market. The Sapphire Toxic Radeon HD4850 512MB graphics card stands out in this crowd of 'average' cards by offering a factory overclocked GPU and memory, as well as a cooling upgrade that keeps it cool and quiet."

"This device is a storage solution that has more to offer than an external hard drive, but without all the bells and whistles of a NAS. The option to create several different RAID arrays is a welcome feature for home users and small businesses alike who can't afford to lose data. The bright LCD screen combined with a clear, concise manual makes configuring an array a quick and easy task, even for a novice."

"Looking for an Enthusiast level board that won't break the bank? Need to satisfy the Enthusiast side of your cravings but have a Motherboard that won't kill your electric bill? How about some 12 phase power regulation for the CPU and 2 phase power for the ram and Energy savings features you wouldn't expect on an Enthusiast board?"

"Back in August we shared some of what we are doing to drive
new graphics benchmarks on Linux through the Phoronix Test Suite. With
that, we showcased Lightsmark 2008, which was ported to Linux for
integration with the Phoronix Test Suite, and Unigine Sanctuary. Unigine
Sanctuary showcased the latest work from Unigine Corp, which is a
Russian development studio focused on creating cross-platform middleware
for virtual 3D worlds. The Unigine Sanctuary demo was stunning, but
introduced with the Phoronix Test Suite 1.2"

"The $34 Tritton AX Micro Bluetooth headset (TRI-BH200) is a solid performer that does many things well. Filtering out excessive room noise or enhancing your voice is not it’s strength at all, but if you are looking for a economical and stylish Bluetooth headset, you need to make sure you look at the Tritton AX Micro..."

"Today we are looking at the 9800 GT from GIGABYTE. It is a mid-range offering and a re-spin of the wildly popular 8800 GT with Hybrid SLI support thrown in for good measure. We intend to compare this card to its bigger brother the 9800 GTX+ as well as the competition's HD 4850 and see where we land. For those of you looking to game on a budget I invite you to sit back, relax and enjoy the ride. We have a couple of surprises in store for you today so without any more ado, let's get to it."

"Today we are checking out the new iPhone game called Spore Origins. The game has great graphics and fantastic controls. Fans of Spore on the PC will want to add the Spore Origins mobile game to their portable device.
At the beginning of the game, the only customization you can make to your creature is the color of the skin. One interesting options is that you can take pictures from your album or take a picture with the iPhone camera and use it as the skin of your creature."

"As gaming and computer productivity become more refined, having the ability to fine-tune and customize the mouse movements becomes more
crucial than ever. To help meet this challenge, SilverStone created the Raven gaming mouse. This brilliantly designed input device gives gamer and
users unprecedented control over the mouse movement by not only utilizing a blistering fast laser sensor capable of 3200 dpi and 50G of acceleration,
but also adds independent X & Y axis adjustments. With perfectly centered laser, 50-50 weight balance, carbon fiber surfacing, and a convenient thumb
wheel that can perform quick task switching. Benchmark Reviews tests the SilverStone Raven SST-RVM01B 3D gaming mouse."

"iStarUSA's xAGE-N99 HDD Docking Station is a simple, easy to use hard drive dock for 2.5" and 3.5" internal hard disks. It utilizes most of the transfer speeds that USB 2.0 has to offer and demonstrates excellent read and write speeds with a great price/performance value. For a company that has been making server and storage products for close to twenty years, iStarUSA certainly does not dissapoint."

"Today we are looking at the new Logitech Illuminated Keyboard. The keyboard is the first from Logitech that is backlit and not aimed at gamers.
The first thing you notice about the keyboard is how thin it is. The 9.3 mm profile makes for a very flat and comfortable typing position. The PerfectStroke key system provides one of the best keyboards for typing I have ever used. The keys are very responsive, have great travel, and offer a slight click when pressed. Overall tactile feel is excellent. The typing feel is so good that the Logitech Illuminated Keyboard is now the only keyboard I type on."

"The ATI Radeon HD 4670 graphics card is aimed at the mainstream market, which means those wanting to spend less than $100 on a graphics card. For that price range the Radeon HD 4670 offers some serious bang for the buck and the card that it most closely lines up with from a consumer perspective is the GeForce 9500 GT. For a user that doesn't want to worry about getting a new power supply or needing adapters the GeForce 9500 GT and Radeon HD 4670 are the two top picks that one should be looking at. After using both of the cards on the test system here on our bench it is clear that the Radeon HD 4670 raises the performance bar for what one can expect for this price range."

"In this review we will be focusing on Microsoft's latest gaming peripherals. The X5 gaming mouse lends
its design from the previous SideWinder Gaming Mouse. X6 Gaming Keyboard on the other hand is a
completely new product. Let us find out if these newcomers can improve your gaming."

"Are you one of the many computer users that just can't justify spending $300 to $500 on a single video card? Or maybe you are looking for a solution for that Home Theater PC (HTPC)? Well today we're going to have a look at Leadtek's newest entry into the video card market: the WinFast PX9500 GT. This is by no means a top-of-the-line gaming card, and it was never meant to be. The 9500 GT claims to be an excellent solution for viewing HD video - we'll take a look at that today - as well as heat and power issues to see just how well this card fills the niche it was designed for."

"Today I am going to be looking at a product from a company
that isn’t usually associated with the computer hardware industry. The
company is Pioneer and the product is one of their new DVD rewriter’s
the DVR-116DBK. Coming from a big household name like Pioneer I expect
it to be cutting edge, even though Pioneer isn’t generally known for
computer hardware."

"Today AMD launches their new cards based on the RV730 graphics processor. The Powercolor PCS HD 4670 we have on our testbench today comes with a dual slot heatsink which offers excellent cooling and low noise. Together with the serious gaming performance of this card, AMD has managed to successfully position their product in the sub-$100 segment."

"HIS has just released the IceQ4 version of the AMD Radeon HD 4850. The IceQ4 cooler is a dual-slot solution which ensures low temperatures under both idle and load. Also HIS has overclocked the card which results in a nice performance boost compared to the reference design card."

"The OCZ PC2-9200 Flex II 4GB memory kit steps up the game for 4GB memory kits. No longer does 4GB have to be associated with slow and loose timings. Focusing solely at the performance available, this kit really does give you the flexibility to choose between tight timings or high frequencies with appreciable read, write, and copy bandwidth across the board. Factor in the overclocking, Extended Voltage Protection, and the Xtreme Liquid Convection heatsink and you've got a well rounded memory kit..."

"PQI's newest class 6 SDHC card is aimed at those looking for a cheap and fast storage card. Being a competitively priced class 6 card it is definitely worth considering if you are looking to upgrade your camera or other write intensive devices' memory."

"The Thecus N3200 3-Bay SOHO network storage system is much more than a typical network attached storage device, and is something like a Swiss Army knife of networking and storage functionality. In addition to making sure your important data is well looked after on three hard drives configured in your choice of RAID arrays, it makes sharing it locally and globally rather easy."

"Today we are looking at a very good flashlight from Duracell called the Duracell Daylite LED Flashlight. The flashlight comes in three versions defined by the light output and the battery type used.
The Duracell Daylite LED Flashlight has a very white beam and significantly reduced dark spots. The beam can be adjusted with more of a pinpoint beam or widened to cover more space. The Duracell Daylite LED Flashlight had a brighter and whiter beam than a large three D-cell Mag-lite I had around for comparison using the naked eye."

"Overclocking can take on many forms, and experiments can range from minor product improvements to a total re-engineering project that
completely alters the hardware. Because of their long history of successful product launches, NVIDIA is the most recognized name in the graphics
industry. Their GeForce series of desktop graphics accelerators has become an enthusiast favorite, primarily because of excellent overclocking
potential. For gamers, overclocking unlocks a hidden potential to change the graphics quality settings from medium to high without a hardware upgrade.
The results are often times worth the risk, and in this article Benchmark Reviews will focus on achieving the most gain possible from any NVIDIA
GeForce video card through overclocking, while using the least amount of effort."

"The Intel line of Solid State Drives is certainly one of the most anticipated pieces of hardware for 2008. Intel without a doubt raised the bar with what one can expect with Solid State Drives by producing a drive that can compete with any drive on the market, be it solid state or a hard disk. The highlights of the Intel X25-M has to be the fast that it uses hardly any power, puts off little heat and the insanely fast read and access speeds. The SSD architecture looks a lot more appealing now that Intel has entered the market and I’m sure that this is only the beginning of many more exciting products to come down the pipes..."

"With the introduction of the SL Series
notebooks, Lenovo continues its trend of
pushing the ThinkPad name out of its lofty
perch and into more affordable territory. The
14.1-inch version bulks up a bit for the sake
of keeping price low, but retains Lenovo's
signature ThinkPad durability and feel, along
with competent performance for a business
machine. But some minor issues still need to
be ironed out."

"NVIDIA's new GeForce 9400 GT Series is based on the same G96 GPU that is also used on the 9500 GT. The 9400 GT has half the shaders however, which seriously limits the uses of the card in a gaming PC. On the other hand this greatly reduces the heat output which allows a completely passive solution. Point of View differentiates their card by using 1 GB of video memory and bundling a full version of the Wall-E game."

"As PCs found their way into more homes, they quickly became a staple of modern life. And like most things in modern life, what worked yesterday won't work today. This not only includes components like faster CPUs and video cards, but also fancier cases and enclosures. People grew tired of the cookie cutter beige box and wanted to express themselves through radical looking cases. Once manufacturers began to take notice and it was only a matter of time before every enthusiast was given a sea of choices when it came to picking a suitable chassis. Whether you wanted a full tower, mid-tower, or HTPC, you had plenty to pick from. Side-panel or no side panel? It's all good. Even color was no longer restricted to just beige, black or silver."

"Over the years of Razer launching new products such as the
Copperhead, Barracuda HP-1, and Tarantula, we have been completely
overtaken by their incredibly well-designed products -- primarily their
high-end gaming mice -- and the bar they continue to raise with each new
iteration of products they introduce. The Razer Copperhead was one of
their best mice to have been introduced and it contained a laser sensor
with 2000 DPI capabilities, but their newest mouse is the Lachesis and
it uses a 4000DPI 3G laser sensor. However, with Razer having yet to
provide any drivers or customization software for the advanced
capabilities of this mouse on Linux, is the Razer Lachesis worth its
expensive price tag?"

"Super Talent have created a new line of tiny Flash Drives that
not only offer you the best in style but also performance as well.
Today we are taking a look at Super Talents new Gold PICO USB Drive.
Available from 1GB, right through to an amazing 8GB, in such a tiny
space which is really setting a high standard in the small USB market.
Super Talent sent me the largest size available in there range of 8GB
and I can’t wait to get started on this review so let’s get started
shall we."

"The dark side has returned and this time we are not talking about the whiny Anakin, but a much more sinister agent of evil. You play as Darth Vader’s evil apprentice eager to prove himself. With enough midichlorians pumping through your body to move a building (insert Barry Bonds steroid joke here), you could possibly be the most powerful Jedi ever."

"The use and features of the Thecus N5200 were impressive and this is partly due to the fact that it has been on the market now for well over a year. The firmware and setup wizard have been updated a number of times over the months and my testing went without any problems. I was a little nervous when I started building the server as the Western Digital WD1500 hard drives I used were not on the HDD compatibility list provided by Thecus, but the N5200 was compatible with them!"

"While the ASUS Eee PC 901 doesn't have its solid-state disk
drives encrypted by default, if you are storing any potentially
sensitive information on this netbook -- or any mobile device for that
matter -- you really should encrypt the data. When you lose a mobile
device or it has been stolen, it can be a nightmare if your banking
information was stored on there or even just passwords to your Internet
accounts. However, what is theperformance cost for fully encrypting a
hard drive on one of these Intel Atom computers? In this article we are
looking at the performance impact of fully encrypting the solid-state
storage versus an unencrypted LVM within Ubuntu Linux."

"Enthusiasts looking for a DDR3 board with the P45 chipset should look no further for a top tier performance motherboard. Given how DDR3 prices have plummeted lately, adopting this new platform isn't restricted to solely those who competitively benchmark or have deep pockets. The GA-EP45T-Extreme lives up to its Extreme name and gives the consumer another option in the high-end motherboard arena..."

"The Mirrorbox is an all-in-one card reader, able to handle every card you throw at it. It has a stylish black housing with compact dimensions and everything to get access to those holiday images on that memory card."

"The Mapower MAP-TB32 dual SATA RAID enclosure is a very well constructed enclosure with a clean and appealing appearance. This enclosure's primary method of connection should be via eSATA to take full advantage of its capabilities, as its below average USB 2.0 performance is disappointing. Minor issues and poor documentation aside, performance on the SATA bus is good and gets even better when configured to operate as a RAID-0 volume."

"While Optical, Laser or Infrared mice can operate under those grueling conditions, we, and perhaps we alone, hear their cries of agony. Crying out into the glow of the LCD, 'Help us our feet hurt, Help us Help you PWN'. When Razer contacted us about testing their new Goliathus High Speed Edition Gaming Mouse Pad, we heard the cries of thousands of mice begging for relief and we were glad for the chance to be the voice of all those tortured souls."

"The Vi-On does exactly what an external enclosure should do – provide a cool and secure housing for that spare HDD you may have lying around. Installation takes only a few minutes and is simply a matter of snapping in the drive and then plugging it in to your PC. Both USB and a high speed eSATA interface are supported to make transferring files of all sizes a quick and easy process. For those times when portability is needed and the limited storage of a flash drive isn't enough, the Vi-On paired with a SATA HDD is a handy alternative."

"Today's PC gaming enthusiast is always on the lookout for the edge that will put him or her above other players. A performance gaming
keyboard is at the top of the list of products that can certainly make a difference. Today Benchmark Reviews takes a look at what could possibly be an
edge that some players are looking for, the Wolf King Timber Wolf gaming keyboard.
The typical gaming keyboard is hardly more than a standard keyboard with a few enhancements. They have unnecessary software to set up profiles for
multiple games, which can bring along its own issues. Multiple and fast keystroke capability are also on the list of features. Will the design of the
Timber Wolf change the way you play?"

"The Chrome 440 GTX is the latest card from S3 Graphics. It features all the main bullet points like DirectX 10.1, PCI-Express 2.0, native HDMI with integrated audio, small form factor and low heat output. But is this enough to compete with the offerings from ATI and NVIDIA?"

"If you already own the Linksys SD2008 and are having issues with it remember the switch has a limited lifetime warranty, so you shouldn't be stuck with a faulty product. The newer Linksys SD2008 v3.0 switches are more power efficient and put out far less heat than the older v2.x series that so many people are having issues with..."

"The kit in question features two 1GB sticks of PC3-14400 (1800MHz) DDR3 memory rated for 8-8-8-24 timings at 1.9V. While slower kits showed that they could be overclocked to perform nearly as well as this Kingston HyperX 2GB DDR3-1800 dual channel memory kit, if you are looking for plug and play performance at 1800MHz (and above), this kit is worth considering."

"The Dominatrix is OCZ's newest dive into the gaming mice market. It offers features usually found on much more expensive mice at an entry level price point and comes in a stylish blue and black color. You can store your profiles in the mouse so they are available on any PC, even without the mouse software."

"Today we are looking at the latest gaming keyboard from Microsoft called the SideWinder X6. This gaming keyboard has lots of unique features that gamers will love.
I think that a gamer looking to get a new gaming keyboard would do well with the Microsoft SideWinder X6. It gives up the LCD of the Logitech G15, but being able to put the number pad on the left side of the keyboard will be a huge benefit for gamers who like macros. Gamers who travel to LAN parties without their normal computer may find the lack of on-board memory to be an issue. That means using the keyboard on a different computer will not provide your macros."

"If you're sick of dragging a sweaty finger
around on your laptop's touchpad, but equally
tired of toting a mouse around with your
otherwise ultra-mobile machine, Logitech's
V550 Nano promises to liberate you from
carrying around that fist-sized plastic
anchor by snapping it directly to your
notebook. We found the concept surprisingly
useful, and very well executed on Logitech's
behalf, but your results may vary depending
on how you use your notebook."

"The new "Turbo" Compact Flash card from A-DATA raises the bar from 266x to 350x performance. It also adds Ultra DMA capability and uses SLC flash memory to attain insane speeds never seen before. If you are looking to build a solid-state HDD using CF Technology then this is one of the cards you should definitely consider."

"It used to be that if you wanted to overclock your hardware, you ran the risk of voiding a warranty. Supposing that you dared to accept
that risk, your options were still limited by the cooling equipment available to you. So it stands to reason that ZOTAC is making huge strides with
their ZONE series, which combines a silent liquid-cooled system to a 55nm GeForce video card. The AMP! Series is already a fan favorite because of the
extreme speeds at which they are factory overclocked, and the ZONE series adds to this a dramatically improved water-cooling solution for the best
performance with no worries of heat or noise. Benchmark Reviews tests the ZOTAC GeForce 9800 GTX+ ZONE Edition G92 video card against a comprehensive
collection of competitors in this article."

"Since the GTX 200 series’ launch, NVIDIA has revamped their whole current line-up of graphic cards. They have shifted to 9000 series and GTX 200 series, with the GTX 200s sitting on the top of the performance bracket and the 9000 series occupying the mainstream and budget market. Their new budget card is the GeForce 9500 GT. This card will initially be manufactured with 65 nm fabrication process but soon NVIDIA will move it to the 55 nm as do all of the current NVIDIA cards."

"SkullCandy have in my opinion have a great headset here, not
only does it sound good, it comes with the best warranty in the
market, come on do you think any of the other brands would replace the
unit at 50% of the cost if you jump up like a lunatic to celebrate and
snap the cable? I think not, and you just would be silly to ignore
that kind of warranty!"

"Some things just go together like Brad and
Angelica, peanut butter and jelly, Madonna
and controversy. And then there are things
that aren't so buddy-buddy like digital
cameras and Wi-Fi. In theory it sounds
wonderful. You take your shots, find a hot
spot then upload your images to friends and
family. Gee, it sounds just like snapping a
shot with your cell phone and zipping photos
to your buddies-without tracking down a hot
spot. And that's just one of the issues-who
wants to spend time uploading huge digicam
files while sipping a Doubleshot on Ice to
those same pals or trying to see if you've
subscribed to XYZ hot spot just to log-on?
And then there are our"

"I had a broken and bent USB key and I had extra wood so this seemed
like the best thing to do. The original key wasn’t able to hold the PCB
board within the case anymore, so whenever I pulled the key out of a USB
drive the plastic housing would come off but the key would stay on. The
USB connector was also bent from normal wear and tear."

"Overall, I think the iStarUSA HDD dock is a great device to recover the use of dormant drives or to expand your storage options. With backups being so important, this gives you one less excuse for getting them done. Found online for less than $30, this is also a relatively inexpensive solution to your storage needs. Aside from a short power cable, I found no other flaws with the docking station and was easily able to add a variety of drives without compatibility issues and even hooked it to my Apple MacBook Pro for a quick compatibility check..."

"I loved Zalman's HD160XT when I got a chance to look at it in early 2007. It was hard for me to imagine that they could improve on it very much. Well, they found a way. Actually a couple of ways. I like the reorganized front panel for the improved access to the control buttons and I/O features. I also think that the change to the iMON software is an improvement, not only for its functionality, but also for the future support and updates that will be available from SoundGraph. Losing fan control and temperature monitoring is a bit of a disappointment, but the fans in the HD160XT Plus are very quiet (at 5V) anyway, and looking back, I don't think I used the temp monitor that much either."

"As an avid FPS-gamer both of these mice were tested by playing COD4, CS:S, and TF2 to mention a few. After getting used to the shape
of the mouse everything went just as it was supposed to. I found myself getting the headshots I needed, even in difficult situations.
Both of the mice tracked as they were supposed to and even all of the faster movements were tracked without any jitters."

"Palit is one of the first AMD board partners to release a custom Radeon HD 4870 version. Their new HD 4870 Sonic Dual Edition comes with a completely revamped cooling assembly that features two fans to keep the card cool. Also included is a DisplayPort connector and a Turbo switch which lets you select the operating frequencies of the card. The mandatory "overclocked out of the box" is included as well."

"Today we are looking at the Stix 200 motion sensitive 2D video game controller. The Stix 200 promises to bring Wii-like controls to the PC.
The Stix 200 controller itself looks very much like the Wii Remote. It has the same white color and"

"Even for the home user, if 'in today's networked world, digital content is truly the most precious asset', then perhaps protecting that content and providing easy access to that content is second on the list. The Thecus N3200 is a Networked Attached Storage (NAS) device that proposes to do just that by providing complete data redundancy using RAID 5. Or as Thecus puts it, 'RAID 5 Comes Home'."

"I currently have a Zaward Gyre CPU cooler fitted so I will be
comparing the Zerotherm Nirvana NV120 Premium against that. Once I
have run the tests on the Zaward Gyre, which is a VERY capable cooler
so the Zerotherm Nirvana NV120 Premium has some real stiff
competition, I will then rerun the tests with the Zerotherm Nirvana
NV120 Premium cooler fitted. I will also take readings from the PWMIC
to see how well the coolers cool the chipset too as the case IS a
multimedia case and as such has limited system cooling to keep noise
to a minimum."

"The name Lian Li is synonymous with quality computer cases and computer accessories. They've been in the business for over 20 years and
have attained ISO 9001 certification for all of their products. They've built some reputation over the years and have received accolades from the
computer industry as well as end users; but nobody is perfect. Today Benchmark Reviews will take a look at the Lian Li PC7B Plus II black aluminum
mid-tower computer case and see if this reputation for quality and performance still holds true, after all these years."